Constructing the Image of the Church in the Russian Political Discourse in Contemporary Russian TV Series

This paper examines the possibility of constructing the image of the Church as a political factor and institution in the field of modern Russian political discourse. The narrative of Orthodoxy will be examined with the help of units of mass culture – television series. The sample of cases consists of recently released television series, in which there is an opportunity to consider how the Church is represented in them. The work analyzes two film units – “The Monastery" (2022), “The End of the World” (2022). In the study, a post-structuralist theory of discourse was formulated, on the basis of which a reconstructive approach to the discourse analysis of cinema was chosen, which is leading through its ability to construct meanings from the textual side. The purpose of the proposed study is to determine which key symbols and fixations are used to represent the Church in modern Russian pop culture. As a result, the work demonstrates the fixed articulation practices that define the image of the Church in the modern political discourse of Russia. The study also reveals cultural codes related to religious symbols and the presence of the Church in Russian political discourse through the prism of pop culture.